ARCHER 2.02 ‘A Going Concern’

Archer and his coworkers enact a desperate scheme to prevent the sale of ISIS.

This week’s "Archer" actually picks up a loose thread from last year’s season finale, as Sterling Archer (H. Jon Benjamin) finally gets the Russian mind control chip out of his head. But his mother and boss, Mallory Archer (Jessica Walter), has other things on her mind, namely selling ISIS to Len Trexler (Jeffrey Tambor) of Odin before she marries the man. Meanwhile, Lana Kane (Aisha Tyler) gets offered Mallory’s job if she’ll sleep with the increasingly unstable Odin agent, Barry.

Desperate to stop the sale and his mom’s marriage, Archer actually leads the band of ISIS misfits with a successfully staged plan that leaves Len Trexler with the Russian microchip in his head and batsh** crazy.

In fact, what happened to Trexler had me laughing for hours after the show. His conditioning to see Mallory as a devil woman followed by his unexpected obsession with a rabbit and its lettuce (which he called brothers) was hilarious. But the way Archer voiced his slight regret over doing that to him is what makes it a classic moment. I’d also really like to see Trexler return, even if he’s still crazy after this.

Another great sequence had Archer breaking into his mother’s desk to retrieve the mind control chip, only to accidentally activate her dildo and reluctantly turn it off. But only after Ray pointed out that there was no sink in the room. Krieger’s decent into LSD madness was also well played, as he operated on Trexler in less than ideal circumstances after accidentally dosing himself.

One of the reasons that "Archer" holds up so well as a show is that it actually does have a story going on beneath all of the jokes. And Lana’s subplot actually put her in a moral quandary, similar to last season’s encounter with Barry and Odin. I don’t remember Barry being quite as crazy the last time out, but here he’s talking to his gun and "other Barry." Of the non-regular characters, he actually had some of the best lines of the show.

There’s also a really amusing subplot of multiple characters obsessing over how bad the carpeting is at ISIS. It’s just a little thing that added a few additional moments of comedy. At the end, Mallory was surprisingly not as pissed as I expected her to be, even though she correctly worked out what had happened thanks to Archer’s personal invasion of her privacy. Archer even had some fun lines while trying to make up with her. But to make ends meet, Mallory sells the Dry Cleaning business that fronts ISIS to Popeye (Clarke Peters), who immediately uses Archer’s hand-tailored suits to blackmail him into paying off his debt.

"Archer" is easily one of the funniest series on TV. And I hope that the rest of the season can match up with the first two episodes in terms of quality.

Here are the top five "Archer" moments of the week.

5:

Barry: "It wasn’t a conversation, Lana. I was talking TO my gun, not with it. Pretty big difference."

4:

Lana: "To get this job, I have to have sex with you?

Barry: "Hey, those are your words… and also mine, yes.

3:

Carol: "Krieger’s a doctor!"

Cyril: "Not the medical kind!"

Krieger: "Not even the other kind!"

2:

Archer: "Is he always going to be like this now? Cause I feel bad."

1.

Mallory: "Since I can only assume that Russian mind control chip is rattling around in Len Trexler’s bald head…"